


you be the queen and i'll be your clown (a preview)

by ScreechTheMighty



Series: let's be alone together [2]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Jessica Jones (TV)
Genre: F/M, First Date, Josie and Foggy are also in this for like five minutes each, Rated for swearing, bad first date locations, technically a preview of a larger work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 16:43:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13685640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScreechTheMighty/pseuds/ScreechTheMighty
Summary: So we never actually discussed what day we were going to get that drinkAKA the worst place to have a pretty decent first date.





	you be the queen and i'll be your clown (a preview)

**Author's Note:**

> EXPLANATION TIME: so I've been trying to preserve the chapter structure for part two of my Mess Trilogy, which means that this, the first part of the first chapter, has been done for like...a while. I just haven't shared it because preserving the chapter structure means I have to finish the WHOLE thing before I share any of it. However, since it's Valentine's Day and I've been kind of radio silent about how the fic is going, I decided to share this first bit anyway. It's thematically appropriate and I've made y'all wait long enough for news from this thing.

_So we never actually discussed what day we were going to get that drink_

Jessica stared at the new text. Fucking hell. He was right. _Fuck_. Had they really just spent that entire train ride the day before grinning at each other and _not_ discuss when they were going to go out for drinks? She expected that kind of shit from Matt, but damn it, she was _better_ than that. She knew how to make a plan. _What the fuck is wrong with me?_

Matt Murdock. That was what was wrong with her. He’d somehow wormed his way into her mind and then had the balls to ask her out to drinks. Fuck. She’d agreed to it, sure, she was kind of relieved that he’d asked _her_ instead of letting her stew in her emotions and then either never ask him or ask him badly. But seriously, how had they _not_ actually set up a _date?_ “ _God_ ,” she muttered before typing out her response. _i mean im good whenever. you_

_Is Saturday okay,_ came Matt’s response. Jessica wondered where he was texting her. He had to talk into his phone to get the texts sent—if he was doing this in the office, Foggy might overhear. Jessica, frankly, didn’t give a shit about Foggy knowing in _theory_. In practice, she knew that it might lead to a barrage of questions towards either her or Matt. She couldn’t decide which was worse, being annoyed personally by Franklin Nelson, or having Matt spill his guts to his best friend and probably frame the whole thing like it was a big deal. It wasn’t a big deal. It was just drinks.

That was it.

_sure. text me when ur off work_ , she typed out.

_Will do. See you then,_ Matt responded almost immediately. Jessica got the feeling he would’ve slapped a smiley face emoji on the end of that if he could figure out how to make his voice-to-text do emojis (did voice to text do emojis? She’d have to ask him later). It was that kind of text.

The good news was, since this wasn’t a big deal, she didn’t have to dress up too much come Saturday. She did make sure her jeans weren’t too torn up and that her sweater (one of the knit ones, not a hoodie) was clean, and that her makeup was freshly applied and not a bit smudged from her sleeping in it. _Great first date look: bare minimum effort._

Whatever. She didn’t smell like ass, and she got the feeling that mattered to Matt more than how she looked. Especially for just drinks at what she was _sure_ was going to be a dive bar. She’d never heard Matt talk about going to any bar other than Josie’s and Josie’s was…yeah, Josie’s was pretty terrible.

“So,” Matt said when she met him outside his office. Jessica was relieved to see that he hadn’t dressed up any more than usual for work. She’d never seen that tie before, but a quick look confirmed it wasn’t _new._ Just new to her. “Uhm…listen, I’ll be totally honest with you, I’ve been drinking at the same place since college, so I’m not…really familiar with anywhere but Josie’s? If there’s anywhere else you want to go, I’ll go…”

He said that like Jessica knew anywhere better. Sure, she knew a few places, but most of them weren’t any better than Josie’s, one had been pretty banged up during the earthquake, and the ones that weren’t trash weren’t in Hell’s Kitchen. It wasn’t laziness that made her want to keep this whole thing low effort. Low effort meant casual, low expectations, _not_ making a huge deal out of it. That was what she wanted. Casual.

“Nah, Josie’s is fine.” It was more Matt’s territory than hers on paper, but in practice, Jessica felt like she could handle it. That kind of dump wasn’t too difficult to figure out. It was good middle ground.

It wasn’t too crowded when they stepped inside. Jessica recognized a few of the guys from the night she’d run into Matt at Josie’s after his conversation with Foggy. They must’ve been regulars—the sort of guys who showed up regardless of what day of the week it was. Most of them were even sitting in the same seat. “So, how’d you find this place?” Jessica asked as she and Matt walked to the bar.

“Short version? My dad was friends with the owner back in the day. I hunted the place down once I could drink, I brought Foggy, we ended up helping her out with the lien, and now…” Matt smiled. “It’s like home. A weird second home for my inner alcoholic, but home.” He leaned against the bar. Josie glanced his way, but didn’t seem in any particular hurry to come over. “Word of advice? Don’t drink any water that isn’t bottled. Ever. Or have anything with olives in it.”

“Good to know.” Despite his warnings, Jessica was still pretty sure she’d been to worse places. “Are you _okay_ to drink?”

“Honestly, I was deciding if it would be weird if I got ginger ale.”

“Get whatever the fuck you want. I don’t care.” She was best friends with a recovering alcoholic. It was no skin off her back if Matt or anyone else didn’t want to drink.

Josie finally walked over. She gave the two of them a look that could only be described as suspicious. “Murdock,” she said.

“Josie,” Matt replied cheerfully. “Ginger ale for me, and whatever the lady is having.”

From the look on Josie’s face, Matt had just confirmed her suspicions. She didn’t say anything about it, though, just gave Jessica a quick once-over. It didn’t look approving, but one, Jessica didn’t fucking care, two, Josie didn’t look like the kind of woman who approved of anything. “Whiskey,” Jessica replied. “Neat.”

“You’ve got it.” Josie shot Matt another quick look. That was when Jessica realized that Josie might damn well be disappointed, but not in Jessica. It looked like she was disappointed in _Matt_. That was a _why would you bring her here_ kind of look. It became more obvious when Josie came back with their drinks. “You know, there are other bars in this city, right?” she said to Matt.

“Yeah, but none of them have you,” Matt replied, still all charming smiles.

“ _Christ,_ you’re worse than your father.” Josie glanced at Jessica. “Be careful with him. He’s nothing but trouble.”

_Lady, you have no fucking idea._

“She seemed nice,” Jessica remarked dryly as they made their way to a table.

Matt laughed. “That actually is her being nice,” he admitted. “Trust me, you’d _know_ if she didn’t like you.”

“Spit in your drink kind of lady?”

“More like a _good luck ever getting service here_ kind of lady. Or getting anything that isn’t the bottom shelf stuff.” Matt shrugged off his blazer as he sat down, draping it over the back of his chair and rolling up his sleeves. “How was your day?”

Jessica shrugged. “I slept in and spent most of the day hunting people down on twitter. Word of advice, don’t make yourself searchable by your email address on social media.”

“Lucky me, I’m not on social media.”

“Also a good plan. How about you? Get punched again today?”

“No, but I’m pretty sure at least one person wanted to. I guess I’m annoying.” He sipped his ginger ale, a smirk tugging at his lips. “Who knew, right?”

She snorted. The whiskey in her glass tasted only marginally better than the stuff she bought herself, but this wasn’t a place you came to for fancy alcohol. “Trish keeps getting on my ass to fix the door.”

“What happened to it now?”

“I don’t fucking know. I think something’s wrong with the hinges still. I didn’t have to throw anyone through the window if that’s what you’re asking.”

“…not…exactly, but okay, good to know.” Matt looked taken aback. It was such a weird reaction to the situation, seeing how he had gotten beaten up in his own office fairly recently and spent his free nights throwing other people out other windows. “Does that happen often?”

“People aren’t always happy with my results. It’s easier to take it out on me than the person cheating on them.” The urge to drain her glass flared up, but Jessica made herself drink slowly. She was going out with someone, not her trying to drink herself into oblivion. “I can handle myself.”

“No, I know you can. Just…” Matt’s fingers drummed against the side of his glass. “That doesn’t get…stressful?”

“What, people being assholes?”

“People being assholes to you in your own house. I guess I’ve just…” He stopped again. Jessica could just see his eyes darting back and forth behind his sunglasses, as though he were reading over different versions of what he could say next and trying to pick the right one. He did that a lot. It was best to let him figure out what he wanted to say, Jessica had learned. He’d talk eventually. “I’ve had a lot of shit happen and one of the worst outcomes is not feeling safe in my own apartment. I hate it. I don’t like thinking that you’d feel the same way. You know what I mean?”

She did. She also had re-set her brain at some point to believe that nowhere was safe, no matter how secret you kept it or how many locks you had on your door. But she had a feeling she shouldn’t say that to Matt. With his head being what it was, she might set him back recovery-wise or make him all mopey. Neither option seemed great. “Yeah, I get what you mean. It’s fine. It’s not like they’re beating me up in the parts where I actually live. Front’s just an office.”

“Hmm.” Matt took a long sip from his ginger ale. “So, uh…bringing the mood back up, but do you know how to play pool?”

“I haven’t played since college, but I think I remember. Why?”

“Because they should be done over there in…” Matt’s fingers brushed against his wrist watch. “…five minutes? If you want to play.”

Damn, he really did come here a lot. “Sure. Just promise you won’t go easy on me.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

They waited until the other guys cleared out before making a move on the pool table. Matt got the balls set up while Jessica went to get them another round. Josie didn’t say anything to her; apparently she’d said her piece when she’d warned Jessica about Matt being trouble. For a second, Jessica wondered what kind of person Matt’s dad was that he was apparently friends with the heavy-set tattooed woman behind the bar.

Had Matt talked about his dad before this? She didn’t think he had. She’d dug up info on his dad, sure, but he hadn’t given her anything else to supplement or contradict what she’d found. Maybe he figured she’d worked out everything, or maybe he didn’t want to talk about it. All she knew for sure was she’d be pissed at him if he started asking questions about her backstory, so she figured she should keep her questions to herself. _Golden rule or what the fuck ever._

“You know, this place was my office for a bit after the firm broke up?” Matt said as she walked back over.

Jessica’s eyebrows shot up as she passed Matt his glass. “You worked out of Josie’s?”

“Yeah. I’d play pool and wait for people to come to me for help.”

“That worked?”

“People came in all the time once they knew where to find me.” He passed Jessica a pool cue. “Sometimes I miss just focusing on the pro bono work, but…I also like being able to pay rent.”

“Don’t we all. Loser buys drinks?”

Matt’s head tilted slightly as he smiled at her. “I was going to offer to pay. You don’t have to beat me at pool to get out of it.”

“It’s more fun this way.”

“All right, then, you’re on.”

It didn’t take Jessica long to get back into the swing of playing. It wasn’t long after that she realized Matt was showing off a little bit. Not too flashy, but definitely showing off. “You know, you don’t have to impress me,” Jessica said as she lined up her next shot.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Matt replied, all innocent smiles. He had the worst innocent face and voice she’d seen, and she’d seen some bad ones. “I always play like this.”

“That I actually _do_ buy.” Matt Murdock, it seemed, was incapable of doing anything unless he did it as dramatically as possible. “So when I win…”

“If you win.”

“When I win, you won’t mind if I go back for thirds, right?” She took another shot, sending one ball sliding neatly into the pocket. _Score_. “Because I’m kind of feeling thirds.”

“Hey, as long as you’re capable of walking home…” She thought she saw him hesitate, but whatever thought he had, he kept it to himself. “You’re an aggressively strategic player.”

Jessica shrugged. “I like to think I’m strategic in general.”

“That’s true. You are.” Matt took his shot; the ball bounced off the edge of the hole, drifting lazily back onto the table. “Ah, _shit_.”

“Swear jar.”

“Do not start with me, Jessica Jones.” Matt nudged her gently with his stick. “Quick refresher. Where is everything?”

“Uhm…” She stood next to Matt, looking a the balls carefully. “Cue’s at about…two o’clock, near the corner. Stripes at eight, noon and 12:30. Solids at…ten, eleven, right along the edge closest to you.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem.” She was kind of impressed; Matt had only asked her for a reminder where the balls were twice the whole game, and so far he hadn’t sunk any of her balls on accident. “Was how to keep track of pool balls part of your ninja training, or did you learn that on your own?” she asked as she lined up her next shot.

Matt laughed. “Learning how to track things, keep my focus boosted, that was part of it. Applying that to pool…”

“That was just the logical thing to do.”

“Exactly. How else was I supposed to win drinking money during college?”

“You too, huh?” Jessica grinned as her shot went according to plan. “How did that go for you?”

“Better than it’s going now.”

Matt got more careful after that, less showy. But unfortunately for him…

“ _Hah!_ ”

Too little, too late. _Jessica Jones comes out on top._

“Best two out of three?” Matt said almost immediately.

“That was _not_ our agreement, counselor.” She wouldn’t feel bad about giving him a hard time, but she felt even less bad when she got a good look at his face—smiling in a teasing way, clearly not serious. “You want a refill, too?”

“Yeah, hit me.” He passed her his glass. “You sure you’re going to be okay with thirds?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m good.”

And she was. She was actually better than she thought she’d be, and the alcohol had nothing to do with it. This was…actually kind of okay. _Fuck me, then_.

“Just put it on Murdock’s tab,” Jessica said as she set the glasses down at the bar. Josie’s only response was to point at a handwritten sign behind the bar. _Card or cash only. No tabs._ “Okay, noted.” _I don’t know why I expected anything else_.

Matt was deep in conversation with someone by the time Jessica got back. “…going to have to provide proof of income,” Matt was saying. “And residence. Hey, I’ve got a pretty open schedule, on…Thursday, I think? Call the office tomorrow and I’ll put you down for a consultation.” The guy Matt was talking to—young, scraggly-looking but earnest—nodded. “Chin up, yeah? We’ll figure this out.”

“Okay. Thank you.” The guy caught a glimpse of Jessica as he turned to leave. His eyes darted between her, the two glasses she held, and back to Matt. “Are you on a date?”

“ _Goodnight,_ Doug.”

“Doug” smiled brightly, both at Matt and Jessica, before walking off. “What was _that?_ ” Jessica asked.

“Client. He’s…” Jessica gently nudged Matt arm with his glass. “Thank you. He’s a good guy, really.” Matt took the glass carefully. “Just trying to get by like the rest of us.”

_Isn’t that the truth?_

“…can I do two out of three for bragging rights?” Matt asked suddenly.

Jessica rolled her eyes, but couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “Fine. Two out of three for bragging rights. But you’re still paying.”

Matt took the second game. Turned out he was a better player when he wasn’t so focused on showing off. That felt symbolic of his entire life. Third game was a lot closer, but Jessica ended up winning by a lucky shot. Lucky as in _she wasn’t even sure she’d make it lucky_. Matt didn’t seem to mind. “ _Jesus_. Taken down in my own turf.” He drained the last of his ginger ale and grimaced. It had probably gone flat. They’d gotten too focused on their game to really pay attention to drinks. “I’m never hearing the end of this, am I?”

“Not a chance.” Jessica drained her glass, too. “Better luck next time, Murdock.”

“So you’re saying there’s going to be a next time?”

Jessica thought about it. This time hadn’t been… _terrible_. There was nothing too involved. If they could keep it going like this, just drinks and pool…

“Sure. If you’re still buying.”

Matt grinned crookedly. “You’ve got yourself a deal, Jessica Jones.” His fingers wandered to his wrist, brushing over the clock. “Ah…shit, I should head out…”

“Big day tomorrow?”

“If by _big_ you mean _a lot of busy work_ , absolutely.” He sighed and leaned his stick back against the wall. “Lot of research and debating the exact wording of legal terms. You want me to walk you home?”

She’d guessed he would make that offer. It seemed like the kind of thing Matt Murdock would do. “Nah, I’m good. You head home and sleep.”

Matt didn’t press the matter. He only followed her as far as the door, taking a short detour to pay for their drinks. Jessica wasn’t sure what he’d do once they stepped outside. The _walking her home_ part had been easy to guess. Beyond that…

“Hey, Jessica?”

He was smiling when she looked at him—that weird, soft smile he got sometimes when he looked at her. When he talked about certain people. “I had a really good time,” he said.

That was it. He didn’t step closer, didn’t try to take her hand or kiss her. He just smiled that stupid smile and was honest with her.

“Yeah,” Jessica said, a brief smile of her own crossing her face. “Me, too.”

She couldn’t lie to him if she wanted to—and weirdly enough, she didn’t. There was no reason to. It hadn’t been terrible. She wouldn’t mind doing it again.

All in all, that went better than it probably had any right to.

**Author's Note:**

> I am shooting to have at LEAST the first chapter of part two done before Jessica Jones season 2 hits. I can't 100% PROMISE that it will be posted then because life is fickle and so is my attention span (also Critical Role came back and I'm very much into this video game involving robots and parkour), but I can 100% promise that I'm doing my best to have it done by then.


End file.
